Animal Crossing’s Raymond and his maid outfit tear up the internet

Before Animal Crossing: New Horizons became an internet obsession, one character had already formed a fandom based solely on a pre-release screenshot. Meet Raymond, a new Animal Crossing villager whose heterochromia and winning personality have inspired a wave of devotion and fan art.

Raymond is a cat who stands out: His boxy glasses, sharp suit, and stylish haircut make him one of the most modern characters in the Animal Crossing compendium. Raymond’s “smug” personality type can make him a bit of a type-A egotist, but somehow, it works. Another way of putting this is, Raymond may look like a huge hipster with a superiority complex, but but his cuteness diffuses the negative associations that come with that label.

Shortly after the release of the Nintendo Switch game, folks discovered something huge about Raymond. Like all villagers, the player can gift Raymond items or clothes that he may or may not wear. As it turns out, if you give Raymond a maid dress, he will absolutely wear it. Actually, Raymond will wear the maid outfit while cleaning, which is just perfect.

It’s the sort of thing that has inspired some questions about the ethics of “making” your villagers wear things, especially when it comes to cross-dressing, but it’s worth noting that all characters have specific preferences. As New Horizon’s Harvey notes when you first embark on photo island, villagers will only wear things that they like. So, if Raymond wears the dress after you give it to him, it’s because he enjoys the look.

In fact, when you give him a maid outfit, Raymond is thrilled. He notes that the ensemble is different from his usual style, but that he’ll wear anything that is cute, as you can see below:

Raymond’s striking looks, and his willingness to don a surprising outfit, have made him a fan favorite, with players going out of their way to try and recruit the feline. Raymond is probably the single character I’ve seen people talking about the most, aside from returning favorites.

Here are some of our favorite social media celebrations of the character:

Raymond has proven so popular there’s now a small industry of horny fan art floating around — the maid outfit made this inevitable — but for the most part, folks are enjoying an adorable character who stands out from the rest.

—
Patricia Hernandez
Polygon